Plenty of attention will be paid to how the Panthers handled the final two minutes of Sunday’s 19-17 loss to the Falcons, but blame should also be placed on how Carolina played during the first three quarters.Before their touchdown drive early in the fourth, the Panthers turned it over twice, had five three-and-outs and scored just three points.In the 11 minutes that followed, the offense racked up four plays of 15 yards or more, including a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Cam Newton to rookie receivers Kelvin Benjamin (22 yards) and Philly Brown (47 yards).But ultimately, it was too little, too late.“Anytime you get in a game like that, Coach says you play just good enough to win, you play good enough to get beat too,” Newton said.Atlanta seemed poised to put the game away late in the third with a drive that reached the Panthers’ 27-yard-line, but returner/receiver Devin Hester started a fracas that involved a number of players from both teams. Those emotions and a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty against Hester seemed to light a fire underneath the Panthers.Two plays later, Thomas Davis forced a Hester fumble that was snatched up by fellow linebacker Luke Kuechly.“I think it brought some energy to the whole team, and that is what you need,” Kuechly said. “You saw it after that. Everything picked up, and we were able to make some plays from there.”During Atlanta’s final five possessions, Carolina’s defense allowed just three points and 81 total yards.

FALCONS’ FINAL FIVE DRIVES

“We tightened up. We forced a bunch of three-and-outs,” defensive tackle Colin Cole said. “I do feel like defensively we’re getting stronger. We just have to finish games.”The Panthers haven’t finished a game with a win since Week 5, but they trail the Saints and Falcons by just one game in the win column in the lowly NFC South.A sputtering start on Sunday helped lead to a fifth-straight loss, but with five games left, somehow, there’s still hope.”We will play [the Falcons] again. We have an opportunity to play New Orleans, we have an opportunity to play Atlanta again, we have to play Tampa Bay again, all in our division,” head coach Ron Rivera said.”The point can be that we control our own destiny. But again, we can’t control anything until we start getting ready to play Minnesota. We have to win a football game. We have to beat Minnesota.”[author title=”About the Author”]